Kate Noakes

Pleasing the pwca

If you follow faerie lights
that wisp where boardwalk
becomes trackway, make sure
you’re stocked with milk,
or bread and salt. Simple gifts
to please the pwca.

And if you live to tell,
you will have been lead
through the safe places
where sedge forms tussocks
strong enough to hold you.

If you forget these small
items of respect, the whistles
of curlew will turn you
around in the mist, and you’ll
surely lose your footing.

But if ghost candles
are marsh gas, lit methane,
and you prefer science,
go with that vapour logic,
and god’s speed.

pwca, pookah, phouka, puck is a creature of Celtic, English, and Channel Islands folklore.